Ukraine live: Trump will walk away from talks soon if no breakthrough comes, US says

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has warned that Donald Trump could walk away from peace talks if there is no major breakthrough soon.

Speaking on Fox News, Mr Rubio said Ukraine and Russia were “still far apart”, and said Trump was the only person who could talk to both sides, “and hopefully bring them to a deal”.

“We kind of can see what it would take for Ukraine to stop. We can see what it would take for the Russians to stop. The problem is, those two positions are still a little far apart,” he said on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” show on Thursday night.

“It’s going to take a real breakthrough here very soon to make this possible, or I think the President is going to have to make a decision about how much more time we’re going to dedicate to this.”

Emergency services fought fires and rescued the injured after an overnight Russian drone attack in Zaporizhzhia.

Volodymyr Zelensky said the historic agreement with the US will be ratified soon, “and we are interested in having no delays with it”.

The Ukrainian president said negotiators did a good job, creating “truly an equal partnership” between the US and Ukraine.

“The agreement foresees no debt. It stipulates the establishment of a Reconstruction Fund that will invest in Ukraine and generate returns in Ukraine,” he said.

“This means joint work with America, based on fair terms, allowing both Ukraine and the United States, which supports us in our defence, to make money in partnership.”

World affairs editor Sam Kiley explains the minerals deal between the US and Ukraine.

The financial payoff from a new minerals deal between Ukraine and the US is likely to take a decade or longer, experts monitoring the deal have told Reuters.

“If anyone’s thinking suddenly all these minerals are going to be flying out of Ukraine, they’re dreaming,” said Adam Webb, head of minerals at Benchmark Minerals Intelligence consultancy.

Developing mines that produce strategically important minerals in countries with established mining sectors such as Canada and Australia can take 10 to 20 years, mining consultants said yesterday.

“It’s going to be difficult for people to justify investing money there when there are options to invest in critical minerals in countries that are not at war,” he said.

The text details 55 minerals plus oil, natural gas and other hydrocarbons.

According to Ukrainian data, the country has deposits of 22 of the 34 minerals identified by the European Union as critical, including rare earths, lithium and nickel.

“The transition from a discovered resource to an economically viable reserve requires significant time and investment, both of which have been constrained, not only since the onset of the war but even prior to it,” said Willis Thomas at consultancy CRU.

Ukrainian finance ministry data showed that in 2024, the Ukrainian state earned 47.7bn hryvnias, or around $1bn, in royalties and other fees related to natural resources exploitation.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 150 drones during its overnight attack.

The air force, in a statement this morning, said it shot down 64 of them and another 62 drones did not reach their targets likely due to electronic warfare countermeasures.

It did not specify what happened to the remaining 24 drones.

President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed a minerals deal with the US as a truly equal and fair agreement, and the first result of his Vatican meeting with US president Donald Trump on the sidelines of the funeral of Pope Francis.

Mr Zelensky said the minerals deal opens the way for the modernisation of industries in Ukraine.

The war-time president has been under pressure to show results from courting Mr Trump, who has shifted US policy towards supporting Russia’s account of the war in Ukraine and has frequently criticised the Ukrainian leader.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has likely shifted his immediate war objectives and now aims at holding occupied Ukrainian territories and ramping up Russia’s depleted economy, western officials aware of the intelligence have said.

“The Russian objective is to get as much territory recognized as possible and have as weak of a Ukraine as possible,” the US official said, reported CNN, at a time the Trump administration is engaging in peace talks with Moscow and Kyiv.

According to the unnamed US and Western officials, the assessment suggests a shift in Mr Putin’s calculus of the situation.

However, a senior US official told CNN that despite Russian forces making slower battlefield gains and holding small pockets of territory near the frontline, there is “zero indication” that Russia would be successful in securing massive Ukrainian territory in the immediate future.

Despite continuing to make marginal progress on the battlefield and capturing small pockets of territory near the front line, a senior U.S. official told CNN that there was “zero indication” Russia would be able to secure large swaths of land in the immediate future.

The second Trump-Zelensky meeting, by all accounts, was a much more positive affair than their notorious clash in the Oval Office in late February. And on Wednesday it appeared to pay off – with the U.S. and Ukraine finally signing a long-awaited minerals deal.

Now, insiders have revealed details of the Vatican exchange between the two world leaders, and how it may have helped create a diplomatic breakthrough and boost Ukraine’s fortunes in the ongoing war with Russia.

Russian president Vladimir Putin was an “obstacle” to the Ukraine peace plans of the EU and the West, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

The Russian leader was “the only obstacle to peace today in Ukraine”, the minister said yesterday as the European Union prepared a 17th round of sanctions against Moscow.

“We Europeans will accompany this American (sanctions) initiative with a 17th package of sanctions, and I committed yesterday to Lindsey Graham that we would try to coordinate both the substance and the timing of these two packages of sanctions,” Mr Barrot said, referring to the US senator.

The minister said Ukraine had accepted an unconditional ceasefire and agreed to a critical minerals deal with the US.

“Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has made no effort, has sent no sign that it is ready for the ceasefire or the peace that President Donald Trump aspires to, and that the Europeans and, of course, the Ukrainians aspire to,” Mr Barrot said, according to AFP.